‘So to begin we are going to give you all a chance to use the robot and get used to how it operates. OK? Before I do that I’ll break you into two groups and then I want each of you to have at least two minutes using the laptops and netbooks to drive the robot around and get a feel for how it actually moves. What it can do? But what can’t it do? And you’ll discover very quickly how it manoeuvres, how it changes direction and things like that, how quickly it goes, and that will be really important for you when you come to designing your track and you come to race.’

We wanted to set up a research activity to explore how ICTs could be used to really enhance rather than just embellish Teaching and Learning experiences. These students don’t know it but they’re demonstrating the use of new technology that could have wide reaching applications for teaching and learning in both Australia and around the world.

They’re participating in the first stage of a University of Southern Queensland collaborative research project to take new remote access technology and explore its pedagogical potential to enhance student learning for Primary and Middle School students.

‘Each group has a briefing sheet of what your task is. You have half a room each, so where that network cable is, that’s your area so, Marco group you’re in that half of the room and Polo group you’re down here. As a group you need to decide on the design of your track, following the brief sheet, it tells you how many corners, and approximately how long the track’s going to be. Now there is a bit of a problem. The track needs to between certain distances, but we don’t have any tape measures. What could we use or how could we know how long the track’s going to be Lucas?’

‘Use a noodle.’

‘Absolutely, the noodles are a specific length. Ok. You have a certain number of full size noodles and you’ve got a certain number of half size noodles to help you make corners and things. Um, you’ve got about 20 minutes to design your track on the big sheet of paper you’ve got there. Talk about what you’re going to do, think about the design and then draw it. Map it out on your sheet of paper there.’

The remote access laboratory or RAL for short was developed by a team of Engineering and Surveying academics at the University of Southern Queensland. Their goal was to enable their students to remotely operate and observe expensive equipment for experiments. But researchers from the University’s Faculty of Education saw a broader potential for Primary and Middle School engagement and a collaboration was born.

‘One group is going to go upstairs to another room, and drive it through the other team’s track. Not your track, the other track. Each member of your team is going to do one lap. Alright. And, you’re going to time the laps and write them down on the table on that big sheet of paper I gave you at the beginning.’

In today’s workshop the students use Netbooks to enter commands and manipulate the robots to move around the course they’ve designed and built themselves.

But tomorrow, and into the future, students could operate the robots remotely with just a computer, the internet and a couple of cameras. We realise that integrating technology in Teaching and Learning is no longer just a good idea, it’s a public expectation and it’s an official requirement for schools in Australia. Of course, that can present a challenge for educators and their students in remote areas, where such cutting edge technology may not be so readily available. A further challenge for educators is finding way of integrating technology into learning experiences rather than simply using technology to embellish it. And that’s where this project meets a need, by matching technology with learning experiences to create pedagogical outcomes and without any traditional barriers to access. Similar technology is already being used in industry all around the world and now it can be used in education for students in remote areas.

Findings from this first stage of the project clearly demonstrate that remote manipulation of real objects provides the opportunity for rich learning experiences. The task for the research team is to continue to explore ways in which this technology can be used to provide opportunities for students in a variety of different contexts, including remote and disadvantaged areas, to engage in learning activities using expensive equipment they would otherwise not be able to access.

‘Get set, go.’

And even while they are having fun, the long term significance of this project isn’t lost on these students.

‘We made a dead end, and we actually made the design different to what the original design was to make the track better, longer, and less turns.’

‘Was also competitive.’

‘Yes, because you were a legend, weren’t you, in your own lunchbox.’

‘Yes, I had the quickest time.’

‘You had the quickest time.’